


That's Why They Call It A Ribcage

by asdfghjkalice



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: M/M, Minor sex references, Season 3 Spoilers, Winston POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-09 04:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20503373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asdfghjkalice/pseuds/asdfghjkalice
Summary: All Winston could hear that day was his name. His name everywhere. But this wasn't the Monty that he knew. Nobody knew the Monty that he knew.





	That's Why They Call It A Ribcage

**Author's Note:**

> PSA: Not condoning anything that Monty did in the series but Winston is a precious angel who I already adore after his approximate 5 minutes of screentime so this is his moment.

The blaring sound of Winston’s 6 am alarm was blaring in his ear. He groggily got up and headed to the bathroom. Rubbing away his blurred vision he stared at himself in the mirror, took a deep breath before stepping into the hot shower. He breathed. Things had been weird at Hillcrest since Bryce’s death. Winston didn’t know him that well but there was still a strange feeling hanging in the air. Bryce didn’t fit in at Hillcrest, but somehow without him there, things were different.

Winston slipped into his Hillcrest uniform and headed downstairs to the kitchen where the smell of pancakes was wafting through the house and the soothing sounds of the radio were playing in the background of the general hustle and bustle of a weekday morning. He kissed his mom on the cheek and grabbed one of the freshly made pancakes before slipping out the door but suddenly as the song came to an end the news anchor began to speak and he heard a name, a name he was all too familiar with. Everyone had kind of tuned out the name Bryce Walker at this point, it was aid so much. But this name was different. It wasn’t Bryce Walker. It was Montgomery De La Cruz.

***

_The day after it was revealed that Bryce was dead, Monty had turned up at his house again. Unannounced. Empty. _

_“You heard?”_

_Without saying a word Winston grabbed his hand and dragged him up to his room. He hated that this was a habit, but he also knew that it was what Monty needed. This wasn’t last weekend anymore, last weekend was just for them, nobody else mattered, nobody else existed but now things were real, Monty was scared, Monty was hurting. A lot had been disclosed last weekend, Winston knew that he was all Monty had at this moment, he couldn’t go home. It wasn’t even what Monty had said but what he hadn’t said. _

_The door closed._

_Monty’s lips were on his, softer than usual, Monty was always aggressive, but not now. He collapsed into him as his hand came up to grab Winston’s hair and tug him lightly towards him. He pulled back, tears lightly forming in his eyes. Monty never cries, but not now._

_“Everyone keeps saying that I loved him,” Monty said, “I didn’t love him”_

_“I know” Winston replied as Monty nestled his head into Winston’s shoulder although they both knew that Monty’s feelings for Bryce lay deeper than either of them liked to admit._

***

“Liberty High School student Montgomery De La Cruz has been arrested for sexual assault and suspicion of murder”

Winston choked on his pancake. It’s one thing, hearing the guy your sleeping with’s name in the presence of your parents, he was out, his parents knew that he’d had boys over at the house before, but it’s a whole different thing when it’s on the radio and he’s just been accused of murder.

“You okay sweetie?” His mom asked.

“Yeah” he replied unconvincingly, “Is this about the Bryce Walker case?”

“They think it may have something to do with Bryce but they’re saying he brutally assaulted a kid at his school.”

Winston was silent. There was so much to process and right here right now was not the best place to do that.

“I think…” he started, “I think I need to go”

Oh, Monty.

Monty was violent, he knew that. Hell, he had experienced first-hand exactly what Montgomery de la Cruz was capable of and he had scars to prove it. Monty had told him that he’d done things, things he was ashamed of, but he also knew the secrets that Monty kept. The things that he couldn’t share. The aggression wasn’t all his fault. Trauma affects everyone in different ways, with Monty, it made him a bully but that didn’t change the way that Winston felt.

Look at him, Winston Williams, the only person in the world that gave a damn about Montgomery de la Cruz and presumably, the only person left who Monty gave a damn about too. Now with Bryce gone. Monty had done some pretty terrible things and damn right he probably deserved to be punished for them but there was one thing that he knew for sure.

Montgomery de la Cruz did not kill Bryce Walker.

***

_“Why do you like me?” Monty said as Winston collapsed on the bed beside him, short of breath._

_“Who said I like you?” Winston replied, smirking._

_“I’m serious man,” Monty murmured, punching him playfully, “I’ve done some shit”_

_“We’ve all done some shit,” Winston said as he leaned over and gave Monty a kiss on the lips, the first time he’d tried that Monty had fought him but now it was second nature. He deepened the kiss as he climbed on top of him their hearts beating against each other’s chests. Breaths getting tangled with breaths, tongues getting tangled with tongues. _

_***_

He didn’t drive to Hillcrest. He couldn’t face it. Not that anyone there actually knew that he’d been sleeping with Monty, but he wasn’t ready to see anyone right now. He punched the wheel, hard, numerous times as tears began to crystallise in his eyes.

What the bloody hell had just happened.

He headed straight to the police station. The radio blaring loudly as he drove. He didn’t want to miss any news. He wanted to know first-hand. He needed to see him, at least one more time. Parked outside Winston readied himself to go in, he didn’t want to cause any more trouble, so he had to make sure he was ready. He wasn’t ready. And he wasn’t going to be ready anytime soon.

“Shit” he muttered to himself as he turned the car around and drove to Hillcrest after all. After school, that’s when he’d do it. He needed more time. More time to formulate just exactly what he was going to say.

***

_Monty was in his bed for the third time this month. He wasn’t complaining, of course, he’d never complain. This was Monty’s release, he wasn’t violent towards him anymore, he calmed, he was still. _

_They’d experimented a lot. This was all new to Monty after all, a whole world of opportunities to explore but he was reserved. Winston knew exactly how it felt to be the gay kid, the one who was shy, the one who was scared to be themselves for fear of judgement, not least from his own father. At least Winston’s parents had been accepting and loving, Monty was not in that fortunate a position. _

_Monty liked to be on top, he liked to be in control, that’s just who he is. It was comforting. He’d unbuckle his jeans and Winston would head down. As if it were second nature._

_“F**k, f**k, F**K!” Monty yelled as Winston brought him to release, finishing off by gently massaging him, up and down before resurfacing and kissing him on the cheek._

_“You know you can tell me things right?” Winston said. “I tend to be pretty trustworthy.”_

_Monty took a deep breath. Not quite ready to expose his past to Winston. “If I told you some of the things I’ve done, I doubt you’d want to see me again and I don’t think I’m ready for that just yet”_

_“Hey“ Winston smiled. “You beat me up and I still wanted to see you, don’t rule me out that easily okay”_

_He laughed, “Thanks, by the way, you know, for keeping this on the down low”._

_“It’s chill, when you’re ready.”_

_He kissed him again._

***

He was back outside the police station. This time he took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. He walked up to the front desk, hands shaking.

“Is Montgomery de la Cruz here?” he asked.

“Sorry buddy, he was taken to state prison a few hours ago” the man on reception said.

“Is there any way I can go and see him?”

“He’s been found guilty of the murder of Bryce Walker and the assault of a minor and…” the officer started before realising what he was about to say

Winston was getting more hysterical. He didn’t kill Bryce, He knew that he didn’t kill Bryce, He had been in his bed all weekend. What the hell had happened. What the hell had they done? He had trusted them with this personal information, the information he’d promised not to share and this is what they did.

“And what?” he almost screamed at the officer, choking back tears.

“Son I really shouldn’t be disclosing this information to you…”

“Just tell me Goddamnit!”

“Montgomery de la Cruz was found dead in his jail cell about an hour ago”

“No, no, no, no, no” Winston repeated, “You’re lying, you’re lying tell me the truth, he didn’t kill Bryce, he’s no dead, where is he? Where the f**k have you put him? What the f**k have you done?”

“Son, could you please vacate these premises”

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye. I don’t care that you threw him in jail, he probably deserved it, but he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this.”

Winston left. Empty. How did this happen, how could he let this happen? He didn’t love Monty, heck he probably shouldn’t even like Monty, but he did, he was mourning, not mourning what he lost, mourning what could have been, mourning the loss of a human being who had clearly been used as a scapegoat and that was not okay. Winston wept. He wept for Monty, something he was sure nobody else would be doing. Maybe they’d be rejoicing, maybe they wouldn’t but he wasn’t guilty, which meant someone else was. He had to find out who it was. For Monty. Monty deserved a lot of things after the things he had done. But he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this.


End file.
